


Knights and Dragons (and Princesses)

by ithilien22



Category: Glee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-04
Updated: 2011-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-22 16:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ithilien22/pseuds/ithilien22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jesse leaves Carmel High, so does his best friend Blaine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knights and Dragons (and Princesses)

Blaine likes order. He thrives on it, in fact. It’s simply a matter of control. He likes to feel as though everything in his life has a nice, organized place where it belongs. He actually enjoys making intricate spreadsheets for relatively simple tasks and he spends several hours each weekend color-coding all of his notes.

His best friend Jesse accepts these quirks with a sort of affectionate contempt – like the time he helpfully suggested that Blaine make a spreadsheet to correlate the relationship between how many spreadsheets a person makes and how often that person gets laid.

“I’m sensing there’s an inverse relationship, in your case,” he had said, and the blush that bloomed out across Blaine’s face had been rather spectacular.

For the most part, though, Blaine tries hard not to care that everyone at Carmel High has branded him a dork. He has his guitar and he has Jesse and he figures that’s about all he really needs. Besides, even if Jesse is actually marginally popular, that doesn’t mean he isn’t without his own set of weird quirks.

For instance, Jesse doesn’t believe in acronyms (among other things). He has to be the only person in the universe who actually refers to ATMs as automated teller machines.

“I don’t like to repeat myself,” he told Blaine once, as explanation.

Blaine repeats himself all the time – mostly because he tends to say things too quietly for people to hear him the first time around. Jesse, on the other hand, is the opposite of quiet. It’s sort of the basis of their friendship.

Jesse usually talks loud enough for the both of them.

* * *

Blaine has known Jesse since he was in kindergarten. Back then, he was too shy to try to join in on the games that the other kids played, so most days he would end up just sitting quietly all alone out on the playground. Except on that fateful day, when a shadow fell over him and he suddenly found himself looking up into the inscrutable stare of a towering second grader who had just appeared on the previously empty stretch of blacktop before him.

“I’m playing knights and dragons,” the older boy informed him. “I need you to be the captured princess.”

Blaine didn’t particularly want to be the princess, but he was so excited to finally have someone to play with that he had nodded enthusiastically anyway – and that was that, so to speak.

Jesse still calls him “Princess” sometimes, as a sort of pet name. Thankfully, he has enough sense not to do it around other people, so Blaine only objects halfheartedly.

* * *

Still, the fact that Jesse is choosing to call him “Princess” _now_ , of all times, is not winning him any points.

“Oh, come on,” Jesse says, his tone infuriatingly cheerful and even a tiny bit condescending. “I think you’re being a little bit dramatic here, Princess.”

Blaine’s fingers clench around the phone and he forces himself to count backwards from ten before he replies, “This isn’t a fucking joke, Jesse.” It still doesn’t come out particularly calm.

Jesse’s silence is loud on the other end of the phone. “It won’t be that much longer,” he says finally. His tone has sobered, but his words do nothing to comfort Blaine.

“I can’t take it anymore, Jesse. I’m serious.” Blaine runs his fingers through his unruly hair as he paces his small bedroom.

“What does that mean?” Jesse definitely doesn’t sound cheerful anymore. Blaine takes a deep breath but doesn’t answer. He stares out his window at the little boys next door playing out in the snow. It looks like fun.

“I…” Jesse starts after a moment, when it seems as though Blaine isn’t going to answer him. But Blaine cuts him off.

“Even if you come back tomorrow, you’re still going to leave again when you graduate in a couple of months,” Blaine tells him. It comes out slightly more pathetic sounding than he means it to. Still, the point stands.

Blaine takes another deep breath. “Someone wrote ‘FAG’ on my locker on Monday, Jesse. It still hasn’t come off. I don’t think the janitor is even trying.”

All week, he cringed every time he neared his locker, feeling the (possibly imagined) stares of his classmates. The thought of that ugly word still scrawled out for everyone to see makes him feel naked.

Because the thing is, Blaine really is gay, but he’s not exactly out about it. He doesn’t wear a pride pin or put pictures of guys in his locker. He holds it all close to his chest with a wild fear that seeing his defaced locker only increases ten-fold. He hasn’t even told his parents yet. He has told Jesse, though.

* * *

Blaine had no idea how Jesse would react to his confession. He just knew that he needed to tell _someone_ , and Jesse had seemed the best choice in that particular moment.

Thankfully, Jesse had been almost annoyingly cool with it. In fact, he had taken credit.

“It stands to reason,” he said, in a tone that Blaine could never decide was joking or serious, “that spending so much time with someone as good-looking as me, you would eventually find yourself questioning your sexuality. I tend to have that effect.”

“You’re a jerk,” Blaine told him, but he smiled even as he said it. He hadn’t even realized how much of a weight that particular secret had been on him until he finally shared it with someone else.

It was liberating. He felt almost giddy with it.

“Oh, Jesse,” he gasped in a fake swoon, trying to hide his smile, “My love for you can no longer be contained!”

To his credit, Jesse only raised a single eyebrow at his friend’s declaration. “Now you’re screwing with me, right?”

Blaine just laughed and impulsively pulled at Jesse, kissing him full on the mouth with a dramatic smacking sound. Jesse tried to look offended but one glance at Blaine’s ridiculous face and he was cracking up right along with him. When Blaine’s mother came upstairs a few minutes later to see what was so funny, neither of them could seem to calm down long enough to tell her.

Technically, Blaine supposes most people would count that as his first kiss. But he doesn’t. For all his silly innuendo that day, he never actually developed any feelings for Jesse, even back in the beginning when he was first figuring things out. Jesse has always been his best friend and Blaine does love him, but thinking about him in any kind of sexual way feels all kinds of wrong. It’s probably for the best, all things considered, especially since Jesse is definitely not gay.

Blaine has always looked up to Jesse, though. Where Blaine is quiet and reserved, Jesse is loud and forthright. He thinks if Jesse actually _was_ gay, he’d probably wear it right on his sleeve and just glare imperiously at anyone who dared say anything about it.

Blaine could never do that. Jesse has always told him he cares way too much about what other people think.

“That idiot will be pumping my gas while I’m performing on Broadway,” Jesse says contemptuously whenever someone annoys him.

Blaine wishes he could feel that superior. Mostly he just feels kind of small.

* * *

“I’ll admit that this has become more complicated than I intended it to,” Jesse is saying over the scratchy phone line, interrupting Blaine’s trip down memory lane. “But Rachel is simply infuriating and she won’t…”

“I still don’t even understand why you transferred to McKinley in the first place,” Blaine cuts in. He knows he’s whining now, but he can’t bring himself to care. “Ms. Corcoran is a bitch and what you guys are doing is seriously crossing the line into morally ambiguous territory.”

“I’m reuniting a mother with her long lost daughter,” Jesse argues, sounding a little too self-righteous for Blaine’s tastes.

Blaine snorts unattractively. “Don’t kid yourself, Jesse. This is all about Vocal Adrenaline. You’re just trying to rattle the opposing team’s lead singer right before competition.”

Jesse is silent for a moment. “Well, all’s fair in love and war,” he offers finally.

“And show choir?” Blaine asks doubtfully.

“You’re changing the subject,” Jesse accuses.

“The subject is you not being here when I need you,” Blaine snaps.

“Hey, that’s not fair,” Jesse says, tone warning. “It’s not my fault that someone defaced your locker, Blaine.”

“It’s not just the locker!” Blaine says hotly. He takes a deep breath and rubs at the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes after a moment. “I didn’t call to fight with you. I really just wanted to tell you something.”

“What?”

“When you do come back to Carmel, I won’t be there,” Blaine admits quietly. It feels a lot like defeat.

* * *

As stupid as it sounds now, looking back, Blaine was really excited on his first day at Carmel. He had this idea in his head that high school would be the turning point. Jesse had already been in high school for two years and it seemed to suit him really well. Blaine had thought maybe he could follow in Jesse’s footsteps – use his guitar and vocal talents to join the show choir, become cool for once in his life.

It didn’t take him long to realize that high school was hardly the utopia he was imagining. The show choir, Vocal Adrenaline, turned out to be a boot camp style nightmare. Blaine didn’t even make it through the first round of auditions. And without show choir, being two years younger than Jesse meant that Blaine hardly even saw the older boy, even though they attended the same school now.

It didn’t take long for his new classmates to come to the same conclusion as those who had known him through middle school: Blaine was a dork and not at all cool. From then on, he was ignored or mocked accordingly.

Being friends with the rising star of Vocal Adrenaline did have its perks, however. Although Blaine was clearly not a part of the in-crowd at Carmel, he was also not considered one of the true losers, and therefore he was mostly left alone. Blaine always thought that was Jesse’s influence. Turns out he was right.

The gay rumors didn’t start until the beginning of this year, Blaine’s sophomore year. He had no idea how or who had started them and it all made him incredibly self-conscience. But whispers in the hall are still mostly harmless even if they are true, so Blaine just tried to force himself not to care.

When Jesse transferred mid-year, though, it was as if a switch had been flipped. The whispers behind his back turned into taunts said right to his face. Kids who used to mostly just ignore him started shooting spitballs at his head during advanced algebra. At first, it was just these types of small stones but eventually it turned into an avalanche of daily abuse.

Blaine tried to ignore it, to rise above it even, but the writing on his locker had been the last straw. It wasn’t even just the act itself – it was that nobody, not even teachers, seemed to _care_.

* * *

In the end, Jesse says he understands Blaine’s decision.

“It sounds like you know what you’re doing,” Jesse tells him, and Blaine can’t help but laugh at that.

“I’ve never had less of a clue,” Blaine admits, still laughing slightly at the ridiculousness of it all. “I’m scared shitless, actually.”

Jesse scoffs at him, which sounds rather silly over the phone.

“Courage,” he instructs loftily, as Blaine tries in vain to stop laughing.

When he finally hangs up the phone, Blaine looks back down at the brochures spread out across his desk. Dalton Academy is an expensive all boys prep school out in Westerville. The course load sounds intimidating and the headmaster never seems to smile, but it’s a new start in a school with a zero-tolerance bullying policy and that’s enough to make it sound like heaven to Blaine right now. He practically cried when his parents had finally agreed earlier that morning.

Blaine glances at his watch and starts, realizing how late it’s gotten. He’s scheduled to take a tour of the Dalton campus with his parents this afternoon and they need to leave in approximately ten minutes if they’re going to be on time. Blaine quickly checks his hair in the mirror, grabs his coat and rushes downstairs.

When he arrives at Dalton with his parents, the big gothic style buildings tower over him and make him feel even smaller than usual. Dozens of students mill around the hallways as they pass, all with slicked-back hair and starched blazers.

Blaine looks down at his scuffed sneakers and fingers his messy curls. He swallows thickly, suddenly unsure if he can actually do this, if there’s actually a place for him here.

Just then his phone beeps with a text and he distractedly glances down at it on pure reflex.

It’s from Jesse: “ **Courage, Princess.** ”

Blaine replies with an icy “ **bite me** ” but when he slips the phone back into his pocket he finds himself smiling again. He can totally do this.


End file.
